UPDATED: Phone service in Ruch restored, investigation ongoing

Thursday

Mar 21, 2013 at 9:55 AMMar 21, 2013 at 12:34 PM

Now that phone and Internet service has been restored in the Ruch area, investigators are working to track down the thieves responsible for the interruption, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department reported.

12:32 p.m. Now that phone and Internet service has been restored in the Ruch area, investigators are working to track down the thieves responsible for the interruption, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department reported.

The sheriff's department said in a news release today that someone cut and removed 30 feet of copper-filled cable in the area of Highway 238 and Cady Road in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 20. Estimated cost of the cable and repairs is $4,500.

Investigators ask anyone who saw anything suspicious or has information about the theft to call the Jackson County Sheriff's Department tip line at 541-774-8333. The investigation is ongoing.

9:55 a.m. CenturyLink telephone and high-speed Internet services in Ruch were restored early this morning after an outage believed to have been caused by copper cable thieves on Wednesday, the company reported.The company estimated about 500 customers in the Ruch area outside Jacksonville were affected.

The missing cable was taken from utility poles, a CenturyLink spokeswoman said.

The company asked anyone who sees people working on telephone wires without typical safety equipment such as orange vests and hard hats or without flaggers or company vehicles to call 911.

Oregon state law requires anyone transporting metal to have a certificate detailing where the metal was obtained or risk a fine of up to $1,250 or 30 days in jail. Scrap-metal businesses are required to cooperate with law enforcement and to separate, tag and hold property they suspect was lost or stolen.